BUT, if you're only looking for one pair of wheels and you're considering $600 Chinese hoops vs. say $1000 EC90s on pooh-bay why would you bother? The re-sale value of the Chinese wheels is approximately $0, while the Eastons will fetch good money, have warranty support, QC, brand etc. etc.

BUT, if you're only looking for one pair of wheels and you're considering $600 Chinese hoops vs. say $1000 EC90s on pooh-bay why would you bother? The re-sale value of the Chinese wheels is approximately $0, while the Eastons will fetch good money, have warranty support, QC, brand etc. etc.

Pez... Normaly I do highly regard your input on the forum, but regarding this I do think you are wrong.

I have owned a set of Fulcrum Racing Speed which I sold the 3rd time a spoke failed. That was simply too poor.

On the other hand I have build +40 wheelsets on chinese rims on either Chosen or Novatech hubs and I have gotten none back for repair of any kind. I have only received positive feedback on how the wheels perform and every single one I have build a wheelset for have been more than happy with their wheelset.

Pez... Normaly I do highly regard your input on the forum, but regarding this I do think you are wrong.

I have owned a set of Fulcrum Racing Speed which I sold the 3rd time a spoke failed. That was simply too poor.

On the other hand I have build +40 wheelsets on chinese rims on either Chosen or Novatech hubs and I have gotten none back for repair of any kind. I have only received positive feedback on how the wheels perform and every single one I have build a wheelset for have been more than happy with their wheelset.

Someone in the wheelbuilding thread seems to have another feeling towards this:

"Chinese rims?......I've built a couple of dozen pairs in the last few months that come from various sources and different manufacturers over there.The only thing they all had in common was they were all rubbish quality.Heavier than advertised, very poor quality control, huge variation in nipple bed thickness that leads to nipples not seating correctly.Not round, not straight, but always bad.Some are so bad you even need to use longer nipples to get the spoke key on them!Do what you want, but take a tip from me and stay away from them unless they are incredibly cheap."

All together I ordered 2 sets of 20mm tubulars from ArchTecks1 set of 38mm clinchers from HongFu2 sets of 50mm tubulars from HongFu2 sets of 50mm clinchers from HongFu1 set of 60mm clinchers from HongFu1 set of 60mm tubulars from HongFu2 sets of 88mm tubulars from HongFu

I purchased 11 sets of hubs from bikehubstore.com

I'm building the wheels up with black DT aerolite spokes. The 88's will have black Sapim CX-Rays as DT's don't come that short!

Here's what I'll say about the experience thus far:

Bikehubstore.comI know Brandon from WW and some other forums. He started importing hubs and selling them on his site a while ago. I have ordered a total of 12 sets from him for 3 reasons: 1.) the hubs are very affordable. 2.) The hubs are modern and conventional- that is, there's nothing odd or idiosyncratic about the hubs. 3.) Brandon is fast with shipping, he packs things well and he's one of us and I'm glad to give him my money.

I ordered black hubs but I believe he has other colors as well. They are drilled 20/24 and for the price very light. Certainly they're not Tune ultralight hubs but they're also not $500 a set. They have 6 pawls, are LOUD (yes!) and accept standard bearings. The bearings are smooth and I fully expect them to last for quite a while. As the bearings are sealed and standard sizes I can order a bunch of ceramics and plop them in when I feel. The finish and machining on the hubs looks stunning. I have a friend who works at SRAM here in Chicago and upon seeing these hubs at my place he was rather curious as to know where they came from.

HongFu and ArchTecksDealing with the people who work at these companies has been amazing. The have been prompt with their replies, provided technical drawings and details when requested, and answered a milling nagging questions I had about everything under the sun. They communicated any delays with the production or shipping and even stepped in to expedite the shipping from China when EMS was slow. The quality of customer service was on par with any other company I've dealt with and above some others.

The rims arrived well packaged- each in their own bubble wrapped sleeve and in a tripple-walled cardboard box with extra cardboard sheets between each wheel (int he photo I've removed all that)

Upon inspection I was curious as to what I would find with such a large variety of rims. The quality of the 3k carbon is high with almost no wrinkles or deviations anywhere. The seams are clean and line up well. The holes are drilled offset and look very clean with no tear-out or fraying. The finish on the rims is even and consistent all around. We opted for a matte finish and indeed they are matt. The braking surfaces are left uncoated and look very good. I haven't spotted any voids or resin build ups anywhere. In addition, on the deeper rims (60's and 88's) I was able to use a little flashlight and a fiber optic camera we have at work to look inside the rim and was satisfied with what I saw- no pooling of resin, no uneven surfaces, no voids and a general consistency on par with what I've seen of zipp cutaways.

I measured all the ERD's and they were exact as indicated in the technical drawings as were all the other dimensions. In addition I measured all the nipple beds and while they differed between depth of wheel they were consistent across each rim- that is, the 50mm rims had a nipple bed of 3.5mm, the 60's had a bed of 5mm and the 88's had a bed of about 6mm, etc... And yes, I checked EACH SPOKE HOLE.

Each valve hole was countersunk to accept the bulge on the tubular tire and reinforced with an additional piece of carbon.

I haven't got a scale and I'm eager to start building so I probably won't have a chance to weight them until I'm through and they are all glued up, but ultimately we ride wheels with tires, not plain rims.

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